It was this character: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jjNoeYxzpa0 Ironically, about a year ago, Ronan started watching the Miffy shows again. It was soon after he mastered how to search YouTube videos on his iPad. He'd type in the name, press play and then take a step or two away to watch. That video of the birthday celebration was not on the videos we owned but soon became a favorite. We were all shocked because he was so afraid of them for so long.

My Father who was definitely along the spectrum and mostly an undamaged Autist as he grew up before vaccinations though would have had some mercury exposure from coal burning furnaces in St Louis Missouri, and who worked since the age of 8 and who worked as a claim investigator for the Missouri Pacific Railroad and saved that company millions of dollars from fraudulent freight claims, absolutely adored Sesame street! Because he wasn't damaged as most of us Autists are today he wasn't sick until he got really old and only then from typical old age type stuff and from self neglect. He never brushed his teeth and was delighted when most of them fell out "because I don't have to go to the dentist." So he could no longer chew and his death certificate read, "malnutrition." For all of that he was, as most of my species very long lived. He almost made it to 80. Healthy well taken care of ones of us live much longer than that. His gut never hurt as mine does. But he watched that show with delight from almost its first broadcast. Some of what we are is normal for our species. We would be different anyway. We are indeed the Neanderthals, the Northern, cold adapted, more introspective species. We would take longer to grow up due to living longer and that would still be labeled, "pervasive developmental disorder due to our immaturity in middle school and high school. We may even still be face blind and have trouble with facial expressions due to our Neanderthal ancestor's faces being covered in fur. But we would not be sick and dysfunctional, just 'eccentric.' My Father certainly was not sick ! But my mother became that way and I was all my life. I was vaccinated and my mother was after I was born due to her coming in contact with Doctors due to her taking me to them and their getting their hands on her too! :(

Our son (15yrs) still goes to his legos when he needs to step back into a calmer world. He is Aspie now (diagnosed at 3 with autism and ADHD)and mainstreamed with no aide in 4 of 6 classes in high school. The legos are comforting to him. Manipulating the pieces into whatever and where ever his mind goes seems to release the tension a day in high school or out in the world might bring. While he does not do this often, we are ok with it. He has come so far, whatever makes him comfortable in his own skin, is the least we can do, since it harms no one and the legos stay in the basement. He does not include his cousins or the few friends he has in his legos 'moments'.

My 3 year old son(not yet diagnosed)who I am positive is Autistic, loves Bob the Builder. After his MMR vaccination, he lost many skills. He stopped eating, talking in sentences, didn't recognize family members, stopped potty training, forgot his letters, numbers, shapes and colors. He also stopped using a fork and spoon. Bob the Builder was the one thing that seems to make him happy during this confusing time for him.

Sesame Street was there for the first alphabet...and I have a video of the sweetest voice on the planet singing the alphabet segment complete with sounds for the music notes in the bridge because he didn't yet know that notes are different than phonics...his first spontaneous social contact was running up to a baby in a car seat and scripting an Elmo/Hi Baby sequence, and being delighted the baby smiled at him...and then there was the Sesame Street story "Everyone Makes Mistakes" Having the book, him babbling page by page in sync with the video, confirming that he did, in fact read well before he could talk.

We're moving on to Transformers now, after a long season of everything Thomas, but Sesame Street, Disney movies, Teletubbies, Baby Einstein, Little People, Bear in the Big Blue House and Blue's Clues still find their way into the VCR on a regular basis.

Eli didn't "regress", the mercury fillings mom got when she was pregnant was there from day 1 although the vaccines did push him down further...but those videos were the door through which we were able to beging to make sense of the world. The very first play activities were swings, slides, balls and water a la the clips in Baby Einstein. I stalked EBay for al the pieces seen in the Little People videos so we could re-enact the segments...same for Thomas. He made me get down on the floor with the video camera to "shoot" his scenes.

Then he discovered YouTube. He found kids dressed in character costumes, we bought Halloween costumes on sale and he"became" the characters and scripted their lines. He watched toy commercials and learned how to play like the kids he saw. He found adults who like Thomas, trains & Transformers (among other hobbies and challenges) and listens to their clips about their collections, reviews on products and "How To" transform the transformers.

I'm ok that he reviews the baby vids...he learns what he didn't know before. He finds things to look for when "surfing". It's never been an activity for just occupying time from the moment I "got it" and saw the only things he knew how to do was what was in the Baby Einstein clips.

I'm not crazy about him going hysterical, laughing at "Fart Jokes" on YouTube...but a 7 year old who thinks farts are funny is just a 7 yr old...and it doesn't matter he has autism when he finds something funny that all the other second grade boys think is funny.

He's getting an assortment of "real" percussion instruments for Christmas. I'm hoping that means he pulls out the Sesame Street videos that have the characters and kids playing music on trashcans, and the Blue's Clues episode on Rhythm, because another little piece of his world will have a way to fit together and make sense.

This is quite interesting!
I think the answer to the question you have opened is "both."
I have loved reading the replies!!
My Grandson has been obsessed with Elmo since he was a baby. He is almost 5 now. I wonder if this will change as he gets older?
When he is having a melt-down, we put on Elmo and he stops. My daughter sings the "Elmo's World" song to get him to look at her and smile.
I also notice that when I do and say things to him that I did when he was a baby, he giggles. He remembers.
His newest obsession (besides Elmo) is markers! Oh my! My daughter sent a picture to me of his "skin art!" LOL!!
They are going full force with the GFCF diet, have an appt. with a DAN! Dr. in the area in a few weeks, and I am anxiously waiting to see what changes are awaiting us.
I guess time will tell.

Hi Kim,

I couldn't agree with you more!

"Do our children's interests remain at the point of their regression? Are those programs like old memories of when they felt well? Or simply rote comfort?"

Megan is 16 and spends most of her time watching her old "videos" from before and during her regression. Barney, Hap Palmer's Baby Songs series, a bit of Thomas, and lots of Sesame Street. If I were to get her something in that age range (1-5) she would still switch back. It is not the developmental goals of the show but imho, it is the memory of understanding it, the sense of "home", and the feeling of safety.

Eucidatus;
The medical community - my son's peds never ever said he had autism, I spent money, energy,and tears for them to come up with a dignosis of tourettes.

The special ed teacher when he was in the seventh grade finally told me that PDD-NOS was autism. She also told me to go to some autism meetings and compare!!!

I did and oh yeah!

Education system here in Kentucky (don't care that people view us as bare footed hillbillies) was always good to us. BUT I Will never say that of the medical people.

It says in your link that Illinois is the worse in the nation?!!! I am so sorry!

I guess every child truly is different in the choice of toys that amuse them. At first, it seemed my daughter would never stop playing with rubber duckies, and my son would remain fixated on Thomas the Tank Engine. My daughter eventually graduated to My Little Pony figures and then to Littlest Pet Shop animals (boy does she love them). But, to this day, she rejects all dolls and kiddles (things I loved as a child and hoarded for her in our basement). She still refuses to hold or play with baby dolls and all other dolls (Barbies included). When my cousin gave her a plush ballerina doll as a gift, my child would not even accept it in her hands. It was actually embarrassing. My son has now moved on to Transformers and he adores all of them. I am hoping it leads to a career in engineering (wishful, dreamy thinking on my part, I know). It is interesting to think that as they slowly developed verbal skills, their interests in toys changed as well. I had never made that connection before. I am actually grateful and proud that both my children have rejected High School Musical music and video (all the rage, apparently, with elementary school students. Yuk!) I hate it, myself.

Hi Benedetta,

I had a similar issue when we were tyring to get services through ARC/The Children's Waiver http://www.thearcofil.org/

They made it extremely difficult for us because according to the ARC of IL their criteria is different from the medical field criteria as to what they consider is Autism.

They said that PPD-NOS is not considered Autism and were going to have to give our services to someone else who was qualified as having Autism. We fought like crazy to get him the services he needs. The bad part is once we got them to reconsider and work with us the state cutback all services and now we are on hold. Not sure until when......

Good Luck!

My 8.5 year Kyle old loves Elmo. Last year we had the opportunity to meet Elmo and Kevin Clash in person. I even got to tell Kevin how my son made up with own sign for Elmo and taught it to us (basically the letter E). Kyle will find Teletubbies on youtube (lots of people have too much time on their hands and not all teletubbies on youtube are G rated BTW) and can find whole epiosdes of copyright protected Baby Einstein on Chinese and Russian websites. I love Sesame Street too - but really want my son to move on to more age appropriate shows.

Cartoons were never of interest to our son when they should have been. Sesame Street Barney, Teletubbies etc being more 3 demensional were very interesting to him. I think the shows are all Social Stories for typical children, and they do teach skills and morals that will help all kids. They would really be doing something good if they had a character regress as part of the story.As long as the story line isn't "Sometimes, this just happens"

Kim,
It seems to me that they obsess on things and the same things for a very long time.
My son after obsessing forever about batman did move power rangers, then star wars, then Ninja Turtles, Titantic - on to Dragon B Z thats been going on for 11 years now.
I do see though that Final Fantasy stories are crept in the last five years and is slowly rooting out Dragon Ball Z.
Wish it was something that would make him employable and rich.

I conquer, my 29 year old son still loves Barney, Disney Movies, etc...and I look at it like this was when he stopped developing. It makes total sense to me...and you would think, it also comforts our kids in a way? It must have been frightening for them, in some way, to see their world vision narrow this much? When, a child especially regresses, and goes backward, even more frightening. Why would I suggest then, that autism is alzheimers in childhood? And, the Alzhiemers we see in elderly, is autism in them? I am sure my children will still keep watching the DVD's and shows...and to be honest, we are a real fun family when the grandkids come over...perpetual two year old here....they can relate well with my son and daughter...they speak their language....for now...but not for always...

Kim, you may be on to something.

Our Son Liam regressed into autism at a point when his interest was with the outdoors. He loves to watch the people walking dogs and babies being pushed in strollers. Squirrels, Rabbits, Cars Airplanes, busses and the Moon is what he most likes to spend his time doing.

After 3 yrs of ABA at home, he is back in school this year where his teacher had to pull the shades in the classroom in order to control him.

He never had interest in watching tv still does not have an interest in watching. I think I will use this one today in our IEP meeting where his IEP team is refusing to classify him as autistic, a 8yr old non verbal child with two medical diagnoses of autism.